Feds: Bolingbrook man arrested at O'Hare on terrorism charges

Son arrested on terrorism charges

Jose M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune

Zarine Kahn, left, and Shafi Ullah Khan, parents of Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, exit the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Oct. 6, 2014. Their son was arrested at O'Hare International Airport two days earlier and charged with attempting to travel abroad to support terrorism.

Zarine Kahn, left, and Shafi Ullah Khan, parents of Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, exit the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Oct. 6, 2014. Their son was arrested at O'Hare International Airport two days earlier and charged with attempting to travel abroad to support terrorism. (Jose M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune)

A Bolingbrook man arrested on terrorism charges appeared in U.S. District Court in Chicago

The Bolingbrook teen’s plan to join terrorists in the Middle East was carefully laid out, with plane tickets connecting through Austria, a contact to take him across the Syrian border to the Islamic State stronghold and even a letter left for his parents explaining his motivations, federal authorities said Monday.

“We are all witness that the western societies are getting more immoral day by day,” Mohammed Hamzah Khan wrote in the three-page letter discovered in his bedroom, according to charges filed in federal court. “I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this.”

Khan, 19, a U.S. citizen, was arrested at O’Hare International Airport Saturday afternoon as he tried to board a flight to Vienna with plans to connect to Turkey, authorities said. A criminal complaint alleged that he was carrying round-trip tickets but had no intention of returning here.

During more than three hours of questioning at the airport, Khan told agents he planned to meet in Istanbul with a contact who would take him to Islamic State locations in either Iraq or Syria, the charges alleged. Khan also said he expected his role there would be “some type of public service, a police force, humanitarian work or a combat role,” the complaint said.

While Khan was detained by customs officials at O’Hare, FBI agents searched his family’s modest, two-story home and found handwritten documents that expressed support for the terrorist group. One drawing appeared to be of an armed fighter with an Islamic State flag with the words written in Arabic saying, “Come to Jihad.” Other drawings showed an arrow pointing from the border of Turkey into Iraq and Syria, according to the complaint.

At a brief hearing in federal court Monday, Khan, wearing a trimmed dark beard, spoke only to tell U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox that he understood the charges and the possible penalties. Prosecutors said they will seek to have Khan detained as a danger and a flight risk at a hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Bolingbrook man arrested at O'Hare on terrorism charges

A Bolingbrook teen was arrested at O'Hare International Airport over the weekend on charges he was attempting to travel overseas to join the Islamic State terrorist group, federal authorities said today.

A Bolingbrook teen was arrested at O'Hare International Airport over the weekend on charges he was attempting to travel overseas to join the Islamic State terrorist group, federal authorities said today.

As Khan was being led from the courtroom by deputy marshals, his father put his arm around Khan’s weeping mother and sought to calm her. Neither parent would comment after the hearing.

The arrest comes as U.S. national security and counterterrorism officials have voiced growing concerns over radicalized Americans traveling overseas to join Islamic State. The terrorist group has killed thousands while taking over swaths of Syria and Iraq and has released a series of chilling videos showing the beheadings of American and other foreign captives.

In an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, FBI Director James Comey, who has said about a dozen Americans were believed to be fighting in Syria, described such homegrown terrorists as “troubled souls” who “engage in jihad after emerging from their basement.”

In the letter found in a bedroom that he shared with a younger brother, Khan warned his parents not to contact authorities, saying it would “jeopardize” the family’s safety, according to the charges.

Khan was charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist group. Additional charges, however, could come when he is formally indicted.

Outside the Khan home Monday, neighbors were surprised by the arrest.

Steve Moore, 31, who moved next door about two years ago, said Khan would come by occasionally to borrow things like a lug wrench to change a car tire.

“Very cordial, very polite, just a regular, normal family,” Moore said

Akbar Khan, who is not related, told the Tribune that he went to high school with Khan for several years at College Prep School of America in Lombard, where Khan had enrolled after taking time off from school to memorize the Quran. He described his friend as kind, open-minded and “very book smart.” He said Khan had recently been attending Benedictine University in Lisle.

“As far as any hints of him doing anything like this, he never shared any type of stuff like that,” Akbar Khan said. “It’s really shocking to hear.”

Khan is the latest in a string of suburban Chicago teens charged in terrorism-related cases in recent years.

In 2012, Hillside resident Adel Daoud, then 18, was arrested as he allegedly tried to detonate what he thought was a car bomb outside a bar in the Loop. Last year, Daoud’s friend, Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, was charged in an alleged plan to travel to the Middle East to join al-Qaida. Like Khan, Tounisi was arrested at O'Hare as he was about to board an airplane to Istanbul.

Both Daoud and Tounisi have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.